Bishop Guertin's Claudia Daniel (15) and Gilli Tejeda go up for a block against Hollis Brookline's Hershey Vedula during Monday night's Division I matchup in Hollis. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HOLLIS – It’s a different year in Division I high school girls volleyball.

The Bishop Guertin Cardinals proved that with their season-opening sweep of Bedford, snapping the Bulldogs’ incredible 101 match winning streak. They’ve only lost once since, to Londonderry, and Monday night improved to 5-1 with a 3-1 win at Hollis Brookline.

How different is it? The loss sends HB to an uncharacteristic 1-4, despite taking the first set 25-19. That’s because the Cards stormed back for 25-10, 25-17, and 25-12 wins. That’s nothing new, as BG was down to city rival Nashua North 2-0 on Friday and rallied for a 3-2 win.

“This is a new team,and I wasn’t honestly sure how we were going to do,” Cards junior tri-captain Caitlin Harrington, who was a kill machine for BG last night, said. “But this season we’re really connecting, I think, on and off the court, which is really helping with our play. Our record is showing how we are.”

The Cards also got a good serving night from Avery Zapenas, while Thalia Drapeau was solid blocking at the net and setter Deidre Whalen had several assists.

“After that first set loss, I told them we’ve got to be more disciplined, we’ve got to be good on the free stop, and we’ve got to make our serves,” Erb said.

The Cards, a Final Four team a year ago that nearly upset Bedford in the semis, had the weekend off after the emotional win over North, and weren’t quite in rhythm in the first set last night. One can never get away with that vs. an HB team, and BG didn’t. But after that, it was all Guertin.

What changed?

“Our energy and our discipline and consistency,” Erb said. “That’s the BG way in volleyball.”

Guertin cruised in the second set, then pulled away in set three turning 13-11 into 20-15 -sparked by a blistering Harrington kill — for the 2-1 lead. A six-point run turned a 5-5 fourth set into an 11-5 lead, and before you knew it the Cards were up 17-8 and in control.

When the Cards need to force the issue with kills, they turn to Harrington, who had 11 kills in the third set vs. North to spark the comeback.

“She struggled early on in the season, but she figured it out,” Erb said.

On the flip side, this is a rare rebuild, it seems for HB, with just three seniors. The proud program is at 506 wins under head coach Becky Balfour, who took over in 1994. The state record is 542, and if the HB youth grows, they’ll get there sooner than later.

Senior captain Hershey Vedula and junior Sam Burke led the way with seven kills each while freshman Nicole Kosakowski had five kills – a rarity for an HB freshman to start. And sophomore Harper Sarris had 23 assists. Thus youth is being served here.

Balfour liked the grit the Cavs showed – especially with a couple of regulars out sick – but it truly is a different year. HB was plagued with several unforced errors last night.

The Cardinals celebrate after their 25-12 match clinching set win over Hollis Brookline on Monday night in Hollis. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“It’s a different year, yeah,” Balfour said with a chuckle. “We are getting better, the question is, can we get better faster by the end of the season. But we’re playing so much better than we were at the beginning of the season.”

The contenders? Pinkerton and Londonderry – the latter handing BG its only loss – are the unbeatens. Salem is solid, and Guertin has them Thursday. And the five-time defending champion Bulldogs have two losses.

A different year indeed.